LLOYD 20
by The Trickiest One
Summary: Cyrus' hand hovers over the "Kill" switch. He doesn't want to do this. There's been too many blackouts and power outages for the entirety of Ninjago to handle. Lloyd's outbursts were too much work to reboot and he was still building him a prototype body. (Based off of an AU) (Alt Title: Lloyd Dies and Becomes an A.I.)


**Note at the bottom. **

**WARNING: Mentions of death (that's about it)**

* * *

"...don't know if it'll work…"

**ENTER CODE: L.L.O.Y.D.**

"...we have to...hopefully…"

"...is it on…?"

**ENTER PASSWORD:**

"…there's a pass...too!?"

**ENTER PASSWORD: **********

"Did it work?" Jay asks him. Cyrus sighs a shaky breath and hoped it did. If he did it for Pixal, he could surely do it for him.

"Of course it does," Cole tries to sound comforting. But in a way, he's nervous too. "This is an A.I., it _has_ to work."

Cyrus clears his throat.

"Hello," Cyrus says. There's no response for a few seconds, just a voice box emitting sound waves, then:

"Hello, Dr. Cyrus Borg." The sound waves move up and down. Everyone in the lab fell silent. "I am 11073 or Lloyd."

"Please, my boy, it's just Cyrus to you," The billionaire nearly chokes on his words. He tears up. "It's just Cyrus or Dr. Borg."

"Okay, hello, Dr. Borg and guests," 'Lloyd' says on the other end. "I am Lloyd,"

Cyrus opens his mouth to introduce them but the A.I. beats him to it. Cyrus' eyes shifts to Garmadon's, his face was horror-stricken and torn from the voice that was indeed _his_ son's. He objected against the idea that he should be remembered through a computer.

Cyrus disagreed as well. But, he had to meet the demands of the people—the ninja. He owed it to them.

He managed to get a few of what was left of his golden power before it completely disappeared just as the dark and its light had disappeared. Then he built another A.I. with the help of Zane and Pixal. He might not be as advanced as the both of them, but, here he was.

Currently, the nindroids were uploading their information into 'Lloyd's external hard drive, giving him the information he would need to better fit his lost personality and his own mind. The other's left in tears, Garmadon stayed behind.

"So, first, my son gets his life _stolen_ from him and then you come up with a crazy idea to rebuild him and you actually follow through with it. You are a fool for believing the good in this." Garmadon sighs. Cyrus silently looks down. "As was I," The older man says afterwards. "A fool to _believe_ that you can bring my son back,"

"I'm sorry." Cyrus apologizes. Though he is not a legitimate father himself, he knows very much how it feels to lose a child. However, Pixal came back, Lloyd did not. "I actually did not think that it'd work, even I had my doubts-"

"Upload Complete." The computer announces in his voice. Cyrus was going to have to get used to that. Garmadon turns around.

"Don't apologize, I appreciate your efforts by doing this instead of him only being a memory." Garmadon walks away from him. Cyrus turns his wheelchair around to look at him. "But, just know, that this A.I., this _creation_ of yours, will never replace the son that I've grown to love and cherish."

And with that, he left.

Cyrus rubs his hands together nervously and counted backwards from ten to ease himself. He could do this. He has to. Lloyd will not be just a memory.

* * *

**[VIDEO LOG]**

Cyrus clears his throat a couple of times before speaking.

"I've many mistakes in my life that I wish to erase. Sometimes, we do things because we think that they're for the greater good, but they just turn around and hurt others in the end. That's how I feel about creating another Artificial Intelligence." Cyrus wheels towards his computer. "This is L.L.O.Y.D., doesn't stand for anything except for the fallen hero, Lloyd Garmadon, the Green Ninja."

Cyrus looks down before unplugging the hard drive.

"I suppose that I should catch you up on the events that led to this moment," Cyrus shakes his head and holds out the hard drive. "What is the world coming to?" He asks himself. "Before they entered the Digiverse, the ninja visited the Serpentine, then discovered that the golden powers that Lloyd harnessed would make him the Golden Master, a being who will stop at nothing until everything in Ninjago has been destroyed and enslaved under his control. The Overlord had captured Lloyd and threw his father off a cliff, and then eventually tried to steal his powers…."

Cyrus' throat hurt.

"But, the ninja had also discovered that Lloyd's golden power was his entire being, and sadly, he had it all stolen before we could get there to save him, he's...gone." Cyrus finishes. "The Overlord had exploded from the immense power, and the golden energy has disappeared. I managed to get a few to create this. So, here we are."

Cyrus plugged the hard drive back in and started his computer back up.

He doesn't have a body yet. Cyrus doesn't even know if he can even make him one. He wasn't human as far as he knew.

"Hi, Dr. Borg!" 'Lloyd' cheerful demeanor shown for the second time today.

"Lloyd, can you tell me who the ninja are?" Cyrus asks the screen.

"Sure!" 'Lloyd' says. At least Cyrus was getting his personality right. "Kai Smith, the Fire Ninja, Jay Walker, the Lightning Ninja, Zane Julien, the Ice Ninja, and Cole Brookstone, the Earth Ninja."

"Good, good," Cyrus smiles a little. "Now, who is Samurai X?"

"Nya Smith, sister of the Fire Ninja!"

Cyrus takes a breath. "Tell me now, are you feeling human?"

'Lloyd' hums. He doesn't answer.

"I can't, I'm sorry." The voice says at last.

The words **MALFUNCTION!** and **CANNOT CONTINUE!** appear on the screen.

Seems as if Lloyd didn't want to tell him. But, this was Artificial Intelligence. Surely he should know.

"Interesting,"

Cyrus ended the video.

* * *

**[VIDEO LOG]**

"I've been up for hours trying to figure out why Lloyd hadn't answered my question and I came across a minor problem, he put an unknown file in his own code that prevented him from telling me exactly what I wanted, like he has a mind of his own" Cyrus chuckled a little and yawned. "I've extracted and removed the file."

"No, you did not." A voice interrupts him. Cyrus swallows hard.

"I don't know how Lloyd managed to create his own file, it's still a mystery to me." He wheels up to the computer.

"I am a computer, I can do a lot of things. You asked me a question that I'd rather not answer. I am not a human." Lloyd sighs and the screen turns off.

"Very stubborn is he?" Cyrus silently wonders why Lloyd doesn't want to tell him.

* * *

**[VIDEO LOG]**

Lloyd caused a blackout at his tower.

"I managed to try and reboot him, he had a bit of a malfunction today." Cyrus ran his hand over his face. "He was saying 'I'm dying! I'm dying!', I don't know what it means." Cyrus mumbles. "He says that he's hurting. I want to be able to help him the best I can."

"Dr. Borg, we got your call! Is everything alright?" Pixal asks as she and Zane entered.

"Yes, yes, Lloyd just put me out of power for a bit," Cyrus nods. Pixal's eyes followed his to a large paper.

"You are planning to create him a body?" Zane asks next. Cyrus looks away.

"I know now that he doesn't like to be trapped," Cyrus shines a flashlight and held up the blueprints.

* * *

**[VIDEO LOG]**

"What are you doing?" Lloyd is still an A.I. "You never told me of your plans to build another robot, I can tell you things that you need to know but don't you ask, why?"

"How did you know?" Cyrus questioned the A.I. instead of answering.

"I've accessed all of the cameras in the tower, you aren't very sneaky, doctor." Lloyd chastised him. "You created me to be connected to the entire building, just as Pixal was."

Cyrus sucks in a breath. It was true, some days he used Lloyd to act as his assistant and other days he left Lloyd alone to do whatever he wanted. Lloyd didn't seem to be wanting to do anything lately.

"Of course!" Lloyd suddenly shouts. "We are all dying! Why didn't you tell me, doctor!?"

"What? Lloyd? Are you alright?"

Lloyd played an audio and visual recording that made Cyrus shiver. It was Lloyd. The REAL Lloyd. The Lloyd now was freaking out.

"Sounds. Like a. Wonder! Full. New plan!" There's a recording of each time Lloyd or any of the ninja had been filmed and interviewed. "Cyrus Borg. Is why. I am. Here? Yes!"

"Lloyd?" Cyrus repeats slowly, taking his hands off of the robot skeleton.

"The Green Ninja! Is no. More!"

"Am I a joke to you!?" The other is back on screen, the sound waves flicker higher and higher. "Did you create me just to replace some hero!? Is that why Zane and Pixal gave me their information about him!? I'm not real, am I?"

The power shuts off. He gets a call from the ninja saying the internet is down. Cyrus regrets every decision he's made so far.

* * *

It's been almost half a year now.

Cyrus' hand hovers over the "Kill" switch. He doesn't want to do this. There's been too many blackouts and power outages for the entirety of Ninjago to handle. Lloyd's outbursts were too much work to reboot and he was still building him a prototype body.

Lloyd's begging for his life.

"I'm going to reboot you," Cyrus tries to sound reassuring.

"No! You're going to kill me, erase me from existence just as the original had,"

He was right, they never found Lloyd's body, he just disappeared. All they found was his gi belt and piece of his armor.

"Lloyd, please-"

"Think about what you're doing, don't kill me."

"I'm sorry, Lloyd. I have to, you know this."

"I'll be back," Lloyd says for the last time.

Without objection from either of them, Cyrus presses [X] and Lloyd's screen shuts off. It was silent. Cyrus hated it.

* * *

Cyrus told the ninja what he had done, they had gotten used to their old friend confined through screens and technology. None of them were raging out and trying to kill him or anything as he had imagined, they had completely understood. Garmadon was heartbroken. Neither of them had made eye contact.

He started to create the prototypes of Lloyd's robotic body. The entire tower felt empty without the digitized Green Ninja. Yes, it got rid of the constant angry threats and personality (and electrical) malfunctions, but Cyrus would be lying if he said that he didn't miss the A.I.

Building a robot was so very easy when you're making a copy of someone who's long gone. Not your own original work. He was doing just fine.

The first Lloyd prototype exploded as soon as he turned it on. It wasn't the outcome Cyrus wanted, but it gave him something to work with. He turned to ask the assistant version of Lloyd to read him back his measurements for his core, then he remembers the Kill switch.

The second prototype, Cyrus managed to get a picture of a younger Lloyd, and tried to make a copy of him. It worked. Sort of. Cyrus didn't think that it would anyways, so he used that Lloyd as a reference. This one had no voice box nor had he any other function than to just be in idle mode for the final copy.

The third tried to kill him. He would rather not relive that memory nor would he ever want to talk about it.

The fourth...this one worked just fine. He walked fine, he functioned normally, he had hand-eye coordination. He got along well with the second prototype. The only problem, he lacked original Lloyd's behavior, personality (and a voice box). Cyrus wanted to fix that.

**ENTER CODE: L.L.O.Y.D.**

**ENTER PASSWORD: **********

"Rebooting system update estimated time: Two hours total." The countdown started on the startup screen. Cyrus sighed and eyes the second and fourth prototype who were currently in their charging stations.

His plan was to test out his prototype first and then work on the final copy. So far, he only started one-third of the final, so he was making progress. Maybe this one will be his final after all.

As he waited, Cyrus gazes at his project. This Lloyd was probably the busy favorite, even though he made three before he got it right. The core was wrapped with golden energy, enough to not harm nor kill himself or anyone. It looked a beautiful and intricate spider web.

The body itself was hard to construct, not that he had anything to work with. Lloyd and his A.I. counterpart were dead. So, he had to go off of what he saw and pictures. He would've asked Pixal to scan him so he could get a 3D model of him but never got the chance too.

This version of Lloyd had bright golden eyes, represented by his golden core, though the other's were originally red, he was able to change his appearance as the other saw fit. Green, gold, gray, and black, wore around his body. Hopefully, he'll work the same as well.

Cyrus thought back to the real Lloyd. He really felt for the poor boy, he had the whole world on his shoulders, and it hurt. Maybe knowing one day that he'd die without the release the pressure. Lloyd was the nicest person he had ever met, though he was the son of Lord Garmadon, he showed him kindness behind that smile of his. They really did have something in common.

It would be wrong if he said that he didn't miss Lloyd for the short time that they've known each other.

"Sensei Garmadon is here, Dr. Borg!" A secretary from one of the first floors announces.

He's been spacing out for so long that he had forgotten that he invited Garmadon to show him what he had been working on. After all, this was his son.

"Send him up, please?" Cyrus shouts at the speaker. In his hands, held Lloyd's hard drive, it was gold with lines that traced with green.

Checking his computer, he only had half an hour left. He'd spent all this time reminiscing about his projects and the Green Ninja, he wanted—no needed Garmadon to see this. He had been the one who gave him the idea in the first place.

* * *

"Upload Complete!" The voice from earlier said.

Cyrus and Garmadon exchanged glances. Neither of them was sure that this would even work. To bring back someone from the dead, that's something only necromancers could do. And Cyrus Borg was not a necromancer, he's an inventor. And he'd be darned if this didn't-

Cyrus felt his stomach build up with anxiety. He looks up at Garmadon, who only gave him a silent nod. He wheels up to the idle android and hooked his up to the computer. Lined up to his younger counterpart, they almost looked real. Like he was actually there with them.

Then, he turns the computer on, enters in his passcode and waited and hoped.

Then, the android's eyes flew open and his head whirred as he scanned his surroundings. He unplugged himself from the computer and looked around. Cyrus wheeled back, he could hear Garmadon about to cry.

"Welcome back, Lloyd." Cyrus exults out loud. Lloyd turns his head towards him, bright golden eyes gave him a warm feeling.

"Dr. Borg! Father!" Lloyd exclaims and looks back at him. "Thank you!" Then he starts furiously giggling. Cyrus laughs with him.

Then he and Garmadon shared a smile.

* * *

**Note: If you follow my Tumblr (located on my profile), I wrote a short story that helped in my Ninjago fanfiction tag so you can get a clear idea on what happened**


End file.
